T20 World Cup: Shepherd could return against Zimbabwe as Sammy says ‘everybody is available’

Romario Shepherd, who has been on the sidelines for the past week, has a chance to play for West Indies in their first Super Eight game against Zimbabwe on Monday.

Shepherd, 31, lends a lot of power to the West Indies batting line-up, some of which he showcased at training on Saturday. With strapping running from his right knee all the way down to his calf, he was still launching balls up over the roof of the Wankhede Stadium.

Team-mates sitting and watching just behind the nets where he was batting welcomed him back after his hit with fanfare, which made Shepherd shadow bat the shot that cleared the ground – a front-foot swat over long-on.

“He practised well yesterday,” West Indies coach Daren Sammy said. “Bowled quite well, you know, hit the ball very, very cleanly. The good thing for us is that everybody is available for selection. Going into the Super Eight, that’s what you want. So I’m glad to know and happy to know that all my soldiers are ready to go out to war.”

Shepherd was among the first at the nets on Sunday too, bowling off his usual run-up with little to no discomfort. He took a five-for against Scotland, including a hat-trick, earlier in the tournament, but hasn’t played since February 11.

Sammy was able to step into the shoes of the opposition waiting for his team. “Zimbabwe missing out the last [T20] World Cup, you know,” he said. “They are led well. Sikandar [Raza], very confident, he leads by example. And they’ve got six fans in the stands who sound like one million. So there are a lot of things that go for them. And I could understand from that standpoint where nobody gives you a chance – how you could use that as inspiration.”

West Indies have played four T20Is against Zimbabwe and won three of them. The one they lost happened 16 years ago, almost to the day, when the visitors to Port-of-Spain were able to defend a total of 105. Sammy was there that day, along with Ravi Rampaul, who is the team’s bowling coach now.

Sammy offered his thoughts on teams entering the Super Eight with pre-appointed seedings, but also said “that’s not my thing”.

“I guess if you take the logistics that come into it, trying to give the fans who probably travel an opportunity to plan ahead. Ideally, I think the big thing for most people is they say, oh, West Indies came out of the group. Oh, Zimbabwe came out of the group. That means somebody they seeded there did not come out. Zimbabwe did what they had to do.

“If we were not seeded or so, and I saw like this person is going to play there, that gives me motivation. And I’m pretty sure Zimbabwe, looking at that group there, gave them motivation and inspiration to come out and play the way they play.” (ESPNcricinfo)